Wait & Service staff

Throughout your life you’re going to have some sort of interaction with wait and service staff. Most of these interactions will be pleasant, some will be less so. No matter what remember that those folks are trying to make a living in a demanding occupation. (Don’t believe it’s that demanding? You try waiting on tables on a busy Friday night.) Under all conditions be as pleasant as possible. If an order comes out wrong, apologize and explain that perhaps you miss ordered and what you really meant was ___. Note, you can only do that if you’re still asking for the same thing just slightly different. Recently this happened to me, at a dinner I ordered a hamburger with cheese and fries. However what came out was a hamburger and cheese fries. I explained to the waiter that I must have misspoken, and he promptly brought out regular fries.

Additionally, if you make a mistake, own up to it. Not long ago I was having some trouble with math, simple addition was being deemed too remedial for my brain, and thus it was making comical errors. While adding the tip to a bill I messed up the numbers and did the addition wrong, this was probably because I was trying to talk to the parties at the table while doing the addition. Fortunately we were still at the restaurant when the waitress noticed the error and she approached with bit of trepidation. Before she could saying anything I asked if I had made a mistake (I had done a similar thing not two months prior) and extended my hand to take the check back from her. I admitted my error and apologized for the trouble.

Recently I had occasion to dine with another party at their expense (almost the best type of dining experience). The check came and was paid. As we were leaving the waiter noticed that he had made a mistake and undercharged us. He caught us and explained the error. My host presented his credit card again and waited for the waiter to return with the corrected receipt. While waiting my host called the waiter a “putz” in his absence. I found that disrespectful and wanted to comment that I found it hard to believe that in my hosts years of work he never made a mistake. What made the remark even more insulting to me was that the waiter was a elderly man who clearly shouldn’t have been working, but was still doing so because he needed the money. I would recommend that you take the example supplied by my host as a good example of what not to do. Under no circumstance should one be demeaning to anyone. There is no call, nor justification for it.

To that end, I would like to redirect my readers to the following post by one of my favorite columnists, Stanley Bing who yesterday remarked about his dining adventures.

Initial Post

Thank you.

Since I decided to undertake this blog I've been struggling with the opening post. You see I am not a writer by training, occupation, or desire per se. To be honest I rather disliked all of my English classes from grammar school through university.I am but a man who would like to see the return of manners and propriety among modern men.

My dilemma was sorted for me today after seeing my company's founder at lunch. I've decided to start by thanking you for reading this blog. I do hope that I will succeed in entertaining you, and offering gentlemanly words of advice that will help you become the best version of yourself as possible.

So how did a chance sighting of my company's founder elicit such sentiment from me? I do assure you that I am not a corporate suck up. Quite the contrary indeed.

Without the courage our founder exhibited in founding this company, in this area, I would not be leading the life I currently do, which enables me to live in relative comfort and security. This is a man who took a risk to forge new trails, and succeeded. For this alone he deserves praise, however that's not all he's done. He's also managed to keep his humanity about him.

I once had the chance to meet with him and he reminded me that what we do isn't about money. It's about people. The people who are our customers, and the people who are our co-workers. Always do what's right by the people and the rest becomes easy. He is a true Gentleman. Recollecting a time when those in positions of power realized the duty they had to their fellow countrymen not to abuse that power but to make every one's life richer for it.

This is one of what I hope will be many efforts to do what's right by the people. I will attempt to show you, my readers, what it means, and how, to be a gentleman.

Being a gentleman is about more than wearing the right clothes, going to the right parties, or having the right job. Being a gentleman is about your character, how you react to situations and people.

Too many of us today see little in the way of gentlemanly examples. The ways of our fathers and their fathers have been deemed as old fashioned and quaint. As though they have outlived their usefulness. The truth however is far from this modern state of interpretation. In today's society of selfishness and greed we need the qualities of gentleman even more. Gentlemen, and Gentlewomen make modern civilized life palpable for themselves and those around them. After all one the most important qualities of a gentleman is that he makes those around him comfortable in his presence. I do hope that you will feel comfortable here.

Along the way will be posts of my opinions on many topics, product reviews, and travel pieces. I will try to avoid politics directly, however politics will appear indirectly as my stance and views on a number of topics come forward.

So what then do I bring to this endeavour? Only my desire to be a better man myself, and help others along that road; and a short lifetime of experiences. Although in the scheme of all things that one can undertake I've really only undertaken a few. However it's not the quantity of things, but the quality of them that ultimately matters. And for me they were quality experiences.

You will not find interesting tidbits abouts my latest conquests. One that's not what this is about, and second a gentleman never kisses and tells. How very vulgar and crude.

I do hope that you enjoy the posts to follow. I do have a busy life but will try to post at least bi-weekly and more often if the spirit moves me.

Thank you.